The Nokia Lumia 900 review

The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two technology behemoths and Windows …

The Nokia Lumia 900 has the weight of two big names on its shoulders. It's Nokia's big re-entry into the US market; it's also the flagship Windows Phone Mango in this country. In anticipatory articles, you can hardly find the term "Lumia 900" separated from the word "premium." The phone is as important as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus was to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and as, well, every new iPhone is to iOS.

The phone was recently announced at the two-year contract price of $99, a tag usually applied to new mid-range or old high-end phones (even more recently, AT&T announced the Lumia 900 will be free online for new customers). But the implication is that the low price is meant to attract attention to an OS that has yet to win a significant chunk of the market. It's not a reflection of the handset's quality. Because of this, we largely compare the Lumia 900 to the two flagship phones of the other two major OSes, the iPhone 4S with iOS and the Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0. The iPhone 4 also makes a brief appearance, since it has the same list price as the Lumia 900.

As our review will show, the new hardware can hold up against both of these more expensive phones, and Nokia's total package deserves to be taken seriously. Still, the OS has some maturing to do compared to the other two platforms. Power users for whom price is less of a factor will find much to admire here, but they still may not be won over when it comes to getting the best handset, period.

Hardware: girl, look at that body

The Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch 800x480 resolution Clear Black AMOLED display embedded in a unibody polycarbonate shell, rounded on the long sides and squared off at the top and bottom. The polycarbonate body has a velvety, slightly rubbery feel to it, making it easy to hold. Due to the screen margins and casing overhang it feels bigger in hand than you might expect of a 4.3-inch-screened phone. As a point of reference, the Galaxy Nexus measures 67.9 millimeters wide to the Lumia 900's 68.5 millimeters, despite the Galaxy Nexus having a 4.65-inch screen. The Galaxy Nexus is also less than a centimeter longer, meaning the Lumia 900 is hardly any friendlier to a jeans pocket.

The Lumia 900 is not pushing the limits of thinness at 11.5 millimeters, but frankly, that's OK. The pursuit of a thin body at the expense of functionality has lately become a circus we wish manufacturers would stop participating in.

The Lumia 900 has three buttons arranged along its right hand side: a volume rocker, a sleep/power button, and a camera button. A headphone jack, microUSB port, and SIM slot are placed on the top. A single speaker is on the bottom edge, and the standard Windows Phone keys are placed below the screen (back, home, and search).

The Lumia 900's buttons, from left: camera, sleep, volume rocker.

The top of the Lumia 900, from left: SIM slot, microUSB port, headphone jack

The bottom of the Lumia 900 with its speaker/microphone grate.

The placement of the sleep button seemed odd to us during our first hands-on at CES, but our suspicions that it would be easier to press have been confirmed; a button centered on the long edge is easier to press with your left forefinger or right thumb than one on the top edge. However, it does mean those fingers have to find somewhere else to sit while you're using the phone. The buttons have decent tactile feedback and aren't too stiff, though the halfway-press on the camera button used to focus to the lens can be difficult to feel.

The Lumia 900's single speaker is pretty quiet, even at the loudest volume setting. Many phones trade volume for distortion, which the Lumia 900 is likely avoiding by setting the volume limit low, but it can be hard to hear without the volume turned all the way up. As for the other sound components, call quality on the Lumia 900 is perfectly fine. There's no noticeable difference from the iPhone 4S.

An iPhone 4S next to the Lumia 900

The phone also has haptic feedback. It's used very sparingly though, mostly when the three soft keys are pressed. The feel of it is gentle and short, but solid. We looked through the settings and there doesn't seem to be a way to extend the vibrations into more usage cases, such as for the keyboard.

As for storage, the Lumia 900 comes with a flat 16GB—unexpandable, unupgradeable. As apps get bigger and photo libraries expand over the course of the next two years (the standard length of a phone contract), that size limit would start to chafe us.

The back of the Lumia 900 with its Carl Zeiss 8-megapixel camera. Scratches accumulate pretty easily on that chrome plate.

225 Reader Comments

First off, the phone is gorgeous and unlike anything else on the market. I'm guessing if another company had put it out as a non-WP7 phone, the review's tone would have been different and way more lathered up in hype(Can anyone tell which phone gets Casey all worked up? PS: not the Galaxy Nexus that gets mentioned once or twice.)

Second, half the "complaints" seem really manufactured. "I don't bend my thumb to swipe, so this phone has a problem obviously."; "You have to swipe both up and down and left and right in the Calendar app!"; "Macro sucks (although it does on every phone)"; acting like there is no jump list on the app list (or search). Basically most of the article read like someone going through all the good things about this phone and WP7 and actively *trying* to find flaws or be inconvenienced.

Seriously, I saw the headline and thought, "I hope Casey did this one" and sure enough! It's funny though because she had almost opposite opinions on everything compared to Joshua Topolsky's review over on The Verge. He loved the style, didn't like the camera, etc. Opinions FTW

mobinga wrote:

PS: Who owns the ugly finger nails in the photos? Get rid of that bullshit you put on your nails.

Ah, I'd forgotten who was complaining about Casey's fingernails. Blocked.

Emails don't provide a toast notification. If they did it would help because I would not only be notified, but the toast would presumably give me details about the notification which would allow me to decide whether or not to ignore it.

If there is a method to get toast notifications for emails I'd be glad to know how I could enable them, it would alleviate a big annoyance I have with the platform.

Ah, I understand. That was an explicit design decision by Microsoft, under the premise that receiving email should not be an interrupt-driven task (which, if you look at the research about how to most effectively manage email, they're right). I get why you would want that, but they do have very good reasons not to do that.

And there's the problem both Microsoft and Apple have; you have to do things their way. This would be a great place to have an option; allow the user to turn on notifications if their workflow calls for it. But MS has decided that email should not be an interrupt-driven task, and if you think differently, tough titties.

Well, yah. Think about it this way: if they code an option for it, they have to support it. They have other things they want to add to WP7, and solid research saying that interrupt-driven email is generally a bad thing. They decide to spend their limited resources on other features for the OS. At some point in time, the product manager for Windows Phone has to manage features for releases to make release schedules. It's core to product development.

I was going to suggest you use the Microsoft Connect website for submitting feedback and feature requests, but I can't find a dedicated Windows Phone Connect feedback site. :/

Microsoft offers Twitter integration, but it's so clunky, it would almost be better to not include it at all. The phone will show you that you've been Tweeted at, but in order to view the actual Tweet you have to tap into your "Me" tile, swipe to your notification list, then tap on each individual message to see it. How anyone at Microsoft thought this would help you get "in, out, and back to life" is a mystery to me.

Emails don't provide a toast notification. If they did it would help because I would not only be notified, but the toast would presumably give me details about the notification which would allow me to decide whether or not to ignore it.

If there is a method to get toast notifications for emails I'd be glad to know how I could enable them, it would alleviate a big annoyance I have with the platform.

Ah, I understand. That was an explicit design decision by Microsoft, under the premise that receiving email should not be an interrupt-driven task (which, if you look at the research about how to most effectively manage email, they're right). I get why you would want that, but they do have very good reasons not to do that.

And there's the problem both Microsoft and Apple have; you have to do things their way. This would be a great place to have an option; allow the user to turn on notifications if their workflow calls for it. But MS has decided that email should not be an interrupt-driven task, and if you think differently, tough titties.

Well, yah. Think about it this way: if they code an option for it, they have to support it. They have other things they want to add to WP7, and solid research saying that interrupt-driven email is generally a bad thing. They decide to spend their limited resources on other features for the OS. At some point in time, the product manager for Windows Phone has to manage features for releases to make release schedules. It's core to product development.

I was going to suggest you use the Microsoft Connect website for submitting feedback and feature requests, but I can't find a dedicated Windows Phone Connect feedback site. :/

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check? One of the biggest uses of my phone is getting those notifications, so as soon as someone emails me personally, or a professor sends me something important, I know about it. I couldn't imagine not having that feature, and saying that research indicates that is not an effective way to manage email is not an excuse. It works just fine and lets me see what something is and then archive or delete it later. I hope I'm misreading your statements about this.

I repeat myself too often but this thing with ICS... Instant Buy. (Different color perhaps)

I dislike WIndows Phone 7 the more, the more I see it. The home screen alone is ridiculous. Per default you have a black bar at the top, a thicker black bar at the side. Who designed something like that? Without scrolling you can see 8, whole 8 tiles.

And even though the main view look pretty cool with their flat comic-style colors most of the views that had not been devoted that much time to like the messaging view or the about one, look simply ugly.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

Emails don't provide a toast notification. If they did it would help because I would not only be notified, but the toast would presumably give me details about the notification which would allow me to decide whether or not to ignore it.

If there is a method to get toast notifications for emails I'd be glad to know how I could enable them, it would alleviate a big annoyance I have with the platform.

Ah, I understand. That was an explicit design decision by Microsoft, under the premise that receiving email should not be an interrupt-driven task (which, if you look at the research about how to most effectively manage email, they're right). I get why you would want that, but they do have very good reasons not to do that.

And there's the problem both Microsoft and Apple have; you have to do things their way. This would be a great place to have an option; allow the user to turn on notifications if their workflow calls for it. But MS has decided that email should not be an interrupt-driven task, and if you think differently, tough titties.

Well, yah. Think about it this way: if they code an option for it, they have to support it. They have other things they want to add to WP7, and solid research saying that interrupt-driven email is generally a bad thing. They decide to spend their limited resources on other features for the OS. At some point in time, the product manager for Windows Phone has to manage features for releases to make release schedules. It's core to product development.

I was going to suggest you use the Microsoft Connect website for submitting feedback and feature requests, but I can't find a dedicated Windows Phone Connect feedback site. :/

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check? One of the biggest uses of my phone is getting those notifications, so as soon as someone emails me personally, or a professor sends me something important, I know about it. I couldn't imagine not having that feature, and saying that research indicates that is not an effective way to manage email is not an excuse. It works just fine and lets me see what something is and then archive or delete it later. I hope I'm misreading your statements about this.

There are multiple ways to know you have an email. You're phone will vibrate or play a notification sound as per your settings. The lock screen will display an email icon with a number indicating the amount of new messages and finally the email live tile (you can have multiple ones for various accounts) will also display the number of new messages.

Note, new messages != unread messages. It means the number of new messages since you last accessed the app. So if you got a notification, entered the app and decided not to read it at this time, the tile and lock screen indicator will both return to their default state.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

First off, the phone is gorgeous and unlike anything else on the market. I'm guessing if another company had put it out as a non-WP7 phone, the review's tone would have been different and way more lathered up in hype(Can anyone tell which phone gets Casey all worked up? PS: not the Galaxy Nexus that gets mentioned once or twice.)

Second, half the "complaints" seem really manufactured. "I don't bend my thumb to swipe, so this phone has a problem obviously."; "You have to swipe both up and down and left and right in the Calendar app!"; "Macro sucks (although it does on every phone)"; acting like there is no jump list on the app list (or search). Basically most of the article read like someone going through all the good things about this phone and WP7 and actively *trying* to find flaws or be inconvenienced.

It's amazing the things you find when you arent biased towards the platform! This felt like an honest review...and hey! If I am going to have this phone for TWO YEARS, I want to know EVERY little nit-pick BEFORE I buy! Good article, Ars...Fanboy non carborundum!

When the Windows app store takes off, these phones are going to be real contenders to iOS and Android. There are quite a lot of folks out there who a) don't like Apple's restrictive environment and b) don't want Android's poor battery life and immature UI. In fact, when thinking about the non-techy folks I know, I think 75% of them would prefer the 900 over the iPhone 4s or Galaxy Nexus.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

Sure..its a FEATURE not a failure, right? LOL

What do you mean failure? They specifically designed email so it will notify you in every relevant way, except interrupting what you're doing. you can even have it ping at you letting you know a new mail came in. How is not interrupting you a bad thing? You still know it came in, you just don't have to stop what you're doing until you're ready.

Emails don't provide a toast notification. If they did it would help because I would not only be notified, but the toast would presumably give me details about the notification which would allow me to decide whether or not to ignore it.

If there is a method to get toast notifications for emails I'd be glad to know how I could enable them, it would alleviate a big annoyance I have with the platform.

Ah, I understand. That was an explicit design decision by Microsoft, under the premise that receiving email should not be an interrupt-driven task (which, if you look at the research about how to most effectively manage email, they're right). I get why you would want that, but they do have very good reasons not to do that.

And there's the problem both Microsoft and Apple have; you have to do things their way. This would be a great place to have an option; allow the user to turn on notifications if their workflow calls for it. But MS has decided that email should not be an interrupt-driven task, and if you think differently, tough titties.

Well, yah. Think about it this way: if they code an option for it, they have to support it. They have other things they want to add to WP7, and solid research saying that interrupt-driven email is generally a bad thing. They decide to spend their limited resources on other features for the OS. At some point in time, the product manager for Windows Phone has to manage features for releases to make release schedules. It's core to product development.

I was going to suggest you use the Microsoft Connect website for submitting feedback and feature requests, but I can't find a dedicated Windows Phone Connect feedback site. :/

They can have all the "solid research" they want, but ultimately, workflow is a subjective thing. If I feel that having my email pop an alert is better for what I do, who the hell is MS to tell me otherwise? Tech should work the way we work; we shouldn't have to change the way we work to make the tech work for us.

As for the effort in coding, I doubt it'd add much overhead, considering the notification framework already exists.

And as for hitting the Microsoft Connect website, sorry. I already voted with my wallet.

I don't know if we're talking about something different but the Help + How To on my app list is all self contained. It doesn't open up the browser at all unlike an app like Facebook (which I just keep a pinned browser page on my home screen). It was also on my older Focus post Mango so I'm not sure what's happening with people who say it's not on their phone. It was already on my newer Focus S of course. I agree it should auto start when you first activate the phone because it really is helpful for those who don't get the features as fast as some others.

On my Dutch Lumia 800, I have a "Help + Info" app which is just a browser loading the official help website, but without browser controls. When you click the 'privacy' link at the bottom it loads another MS site in the same panel, making clear that it really is just a website. (Not that it matters to me, it is helpful info anyway.)

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

Sure..its a FEATURE not a failure, right? LOL

What do you mean failure? They specifically designed email so it will notify you in every relevant way, except interrupting what you're doing. you can even have it ping at you letting you know a new mail came in. How is not interrupting you a bad thing? You still know it came in, you just don't have to stop what you're doing until you're ready.

A non-intrusive status bar notification lets you see all relevant details about the email, also without making you stop what you're doing. That is what Windows Phone should be doing. As it is now you have to leave what you're doing, go home, tap email, and see what it is, and then navigate back to where you were. If a non-intrusive notification was displayed in the first place you could've simply read it, then continued what you were doing. Please correct me if I'm wrong since I haven't actually used it. But that sounds like a navigational and usability mess.

I had much higher hopes for this phone. I want more competition but this feels half-baked. Sure, it may bring more people to the smartphone table. But it doesn't seem to expand the space or challenge the incumbents to innovate.

It is a touch screen device. No oleo coating? WTF are they thinking?! That alone dooms it to a sub-tier of the category, those willing to pull out a hanky or wipe frequently.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

What do you mean failure? They specifically designed email so it will notify you in every relevant way, except interrupting what you're doing. you can even have it ping at you letting you know a new mail came in. How is not interrupting you a bad thing? You still know it came in, you just don't have to stop what you're doing until you're ready.

A non-intrusive status bar notification lets you see all relevant details about the email, also without making you stop what you're doing. That is what Windows Phone should be doing. As it is now you have to leave what you're doing, go home, tap email, and see what it is, and then navigate back to where you were. If a non-intrusive notification was displayed in the first place you could've simply read it, then continued what you were doing. Please correct me if I'm wrong since I haven't actually used it. But that sounds like a navigational and usability mess.

iOS lets you configure this. I'm sure WP8 will be like iOS in this regard.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

But it doesn't let me know when an email comes in, and it doesn't let me know anything about the email that just came in. I have to exit the app I'm in, find the Live Tile, and that will tell me IF I have any email, but not anything about the email. Then I have to enter the email app and actually look to see if there's anything I needed to respond to.

As opposed to my Android, where I get a notification telling me not only that I got an email, but who it's from and what the subject is. From there, I can choose to respond or ignore.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

I think Engadget's review got it right: given the price point, the 900 should be considered a mid-range phone. And as a midrange phone it is very, very good. Like the 710 is very good as a lower-end phone.

Of course this means the WP fans need to admit that WP doesn't have a real high-end phone yet and that's no easy thing to admit for a fanboy.

It's like admitting that most ultrabooks aren't as good as the Air. But they also are cheaper so they shouldn't be compared directly.

Exactly! Right now the 900 is being crucified for having interior parts that don't live up to its sexy exterior. But for $100 (free if your new to AT&T) it's a great buy. I would love to see this phone compared to the other Android phones available for $100 on contract.

Well, Verizon has the HTC Rezound for $50 on contract, with a 4.3" screen with a whopping 720p resolution, a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage (counting a 16GB microSD that can be swapped for a larger one).

That doesn't mean the 900 is a terrible phone, but the claim that its interior parts are equivalent to the best comparably priced Android phones is way off.

Emails don't provide a toast notification. If they did it would help because I would not only be notified, but the toast would presumably give me details about the notification which would allow me to decide whether or not to ignore it.

If there is a method to get toast notifications for emails I'd be glad to know how I could enable them, it would alleviate a big annoyance I have with the platform.

Ah, I understand. That was an explicit design decision by Microsoft, under the premise that receiving email should not be an interrupt-driven task (which, if you look at the research about how to most effectively manage email, they're right). I get why you would want that, but they do have very good reasons not to do that.

And there's the problem both Microsoft and Apple have; you have to do things their way. This would be a great place to have an option; allow the user to turn on notifications if their workflow calls for it. But MS has decided that email should not be an interrupt-driven task, and if you think differently, tough titties.

Well, yah. Think about it this way: if they code an option for it, they have to support it. They have other things they want to add to WP7, and solid research saying that interrupt-driven email is generally a bad thing. They decide to spend their limited resources on other features for the OS. At some point in time, the product manager for Windows Phone has to manage features for releases to make release schedules. It's core to product development.

I was going to suggest you use the Microsoft Connect website for submitting feedback and feature requests, but I can't find a dedicated Windows Phone Connect feedback site. :/

They can have all the "solid research" they want, but ultimately, workflow is a subjective thing. If I feel that having my email pop an alert is better for what I do, who the hell is MS to tell me otherwise? Tech should work the way we work; we shouldn't have to change the way we work to make the tech work for us.

As for the effort in coding, I doubt it'd add much overhead, considering the notification framework already exists.

And as for hitting the Microsoft Connect website, sorry. I already voted with my wallet.

That's the thing. Workflow isn't 100% subjective. Hell, my actual job is telling people how their workflow is terrible and they're wrong for doing it that way, and then fixing their business processes and workflow to work better. That's what human factors engineering is about.

I'm not saying that MS is the be-all end-all, I'm just saying that they made a decision, based on their (considerable) research, that they were going to use their resources to develop other things, instead of interrupting notifications for email. That's an entirely reasonable decision for them to make.

If you don't work that way, that's fine. There are other smartphone systems with different ways to work. I'm not here to tell you that iOS and Android are bad. They're not, at all. I'm just saying that WP7 works, and works well, and has a reason for doing things the way it does.

Even though WP7 is a year and a half old, it's still imposes the "early adopter" risks and penalties on customers: "We aren't quite complete or competitive yet, and our ecosystem is very lacking. But please buy in now and trust that things will improve."

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

Defective by design!

Troll harder.

Shill harder?

Defending th indefensible by calling it a design decision? I bet this substantial research that you dont cite changes with WP capability improvements.

I've never understood why consumers who have nothing to do with a corporation, except giving them money for products, are so interested in sales or how well certain products from certain companies fare in the market... Some of these deluded fanboys just need to die.

PS: Who owns the ugly finger nails in the photos? Get rid of that bullshit you put on your nails.

And when did you become the CTO of the planet?

Your 38 posts here are mostly drivel as well. Why don't you follow your own advice? On second thought, I don't need to wait, I'll just block you...

sep332 wrote:

Seriously, I saw the headline and thought, "I hope Casey did this one" and sure enough! It's funny though because she had almost opposite opinions on everything compared to Joshua Topolsky's review over on The Verge. He loved the style, didn't like the camera, etc. Opinions FTW

mobinga wrote:

PS: Who owns the ugly finger nails in the photos? Get rid of that bullshit you put on your nails.

Ah, I'd forgotten who was complaining about Casey's fingernails. Blocked.

LMAO. Catching feelings over a post online? To the extent of blocking?You lot belong to the category of humans who cry over a video game ending.You must have no lives, go outside often.

I am considering trading in my old iPhone 3GS for the Lumia 900, so I went to the AT&T store last weekend to see if they had it on display. Sure enough all of the employees had the phone and I got to test one out for a few minutes.

Initial impression is that the screen is beautiful and the UI is lightning fast (especially compared to my old iPhone which slowed to a crawl after the OS 5 update). My boyfriend who has the original Samsung Windows phone and loves it, lamented that the Lumia put the speed of his phone to shame.

Things about the phone that give me pause:

- I was surprised by the weight of the phone. It is bigger than the iphone and so it's not surprising that it weighs more (by about a half ounce, I believe), but it bothered me a tad. I could probably get used to that, though. - Some of the apps I use regularly are not currently available through the Windows marketplace. The ones that I would particularly miss are the Hulu and Nook apps. Given that Hulu is (or will be?) integrated with XBox, it is pretty darn surprising that a Windows Phone app is not available. I am hoping that this phone will be a success and that will help drive the growth of the marketplace.

Other than those issues, I can't say there is a whole lot about the iPhone I would miss (although, to be honest, I probably wouldn't be strongly considering the Lumia if the iPhone wasn't so damn expensive). I am already familiar with the Windows phone interface and I think it has a lot going for it.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

Defective by design!

Troll harder.

Shill harder?

Defending th indefensible by calling it a design decision? I bet this substantial research that you dont cite changes with WP capability improvements.

I'm not shilling, I'm pointing out that this is a conscious decision on Microsoft's part when it comes to email. How conscious? Windows 8 does this too. Yup, a system that already supports pop-up notifications has removed them because MS doesn't want to make email interrupt-driven.

This is the same reason for the existence of the Ribbon, and many other updates MS has made over the years to its interfaces. Microsoft tends to stick to its guns on issues around interface because they're fact-based. The Ribbon caused much outcry due to its change, but MS stuck to its guns, and the Office 2010 Ribbon is now a very powerful and flexible way to work with Office, and demonstrably faster and more discoverable than the old menu system.

There's nothing indefensible about their decision. There are literally four different ways WP7 can notify you that you have email, and you're complaining that there aren't five. Do you see how silly that is?

Final line. They made a design decision. It isn't a bad one. If you don't like it, there are plenty of alternative mobile operating systems out there. You're totally free to do so. I'm not here to denigrate iOS and Android at all, just pointing out that there is a major difference between a "glaring omission" and an explicit design decision.

Wait, are you saying the only way to know you have new email is to go and open the app and check?

No, not at all. The email count is on your home screen, and also on the Live Tile for the email box (or box group) on your screen.

The only thing you don't get is the Toast (the alert at the top of the screen that pops up no matter what you're dong) notification saying new a new email has just arrived.

So you're completely overblowing what does and does not get notified. WP7 makes sure you know exactly how much mail you have, just as long as you're not already busy doing something else on the phone. In other words, it's not interrupt-driven.

But it doesn't let me know when an email comes in, and it doesn't let me know anything about the email that just came in. I have to exit the app I'm in, find the Live Tile, and that will tell me IF I have any email, but not anything about the email. Then I have to enter the email app and actually look to see if there's anything I needed to respond to.

As opposed to my Android, where I get a notification telling me not only that I got an email, but who it's from and what the subject is. From there, I can choose to respond or ignore.

You can set an audible/vibrate alert for when new email comes in. Granted, won't see any info about the email if you are in another app, but will know got new email. TBH, I agree should get the Toast notification on new emails, just like do when get new text messages.

I think Engadget's review got it right: given the price point, the 900 should be considered a mid-range phone. And as a midrange phone it is very, very good. Like the 710 is very good as a lower-end phone.

Of course this means the WP fans need to admit that WP doesn't have a real high-end phone yet and that's no easy thing to admit for a fanboy.

It's like admitting that most ultrabooks aren't as good as the Air. But they also are cheaper so they shouldn't be compared directly.

Exactly! Right now the 900 is being crucified for having interior parts that don't live up to its sexy exterior. But for $100 (free if your new to AT&T) it's a great buy. I would love to see this phone compared to the other Android phones available for $100 on contract.

Well, Verizon has the HTC Rezound for $50 on contract, with a 4.3" screen with a whopping 720p resolution, a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage (counting a 16GB microSD that can be swapped for a larger one).

That doesn't mean the 900 is a terrible phone, but the claim that its interior parts are equivalent to the best comparably priced Android phones is way off.

That is a good price. It is a temporal promotional price though, normally it sells for 200 or more.

"The browser is, unfortunately, one of the phone's weaker points, relatively speaking. This is one of the few aspects of the phone we are able to benchmark. "

No actually you're really just measuring the hardware. You put a dual core against a single core on a javascript benchmark which is really just number crunching.

It's really the load time that matters and given that it beats the iphone 4 in this area I really don't think the browser is an issue.

It beats iPhone4 TODAY on this issue. It's important to phrase it this way, because you know, and I know, and everyone else knows, that when iOS 6 is released, if it has WebKit/Safari improvements, iPhone4 will inherit them. (iOS6 is relevant because it will be available in three months or so, but if course the same will probably be true for iOS7 and 8.)We cannot be as sure of whether WP8 will even run on this phone.

I'm not a great fan, in general, of saying "well just wait, the next one will be so cool". You go down that path and you can promise anything for your favorite HW/company.But the upgrade factor is a real issue here --- especially with respect to minor speed differences that could very likely be improved in future iOS software.

The review did a good job of explaining some of the big issues I have with WP7. My mother has had this phone for a few months over in Europe, and I got to try it out extensively on a recent visit. The phone itself is fine, nicely designed and all that. Most consumers could care less about processors and all that, and the phone certainly seemed to be nice and snappy and smooth-scrolling, more so than Android in my limited experience.

But neither my mother or I cared at all for WP7. It's certainly well put-together and smooth-scrolling, but this review and the Verge review did a good job of explaining what many people don't like about it. First of all, it just seems cumbersome and information-poor, which is extremely odd given its text-heavy aesthetic and the marketing campaign that suggests it somehow provides more information than iOS and Android. The things that don't need to be in a large font are in a huge font, substantive information is in tiny text that my mother found hard to read, there's plenty of wasted screen real estate, and you're constantly scrolling and sliding to get more information, if you even realise that you have the option of doing so. Certainly my mother found my somewhat ageing iPhone 3GS to be far more accessible and pleasing to use, though it is using the latest version of iOS.

Certainly UIs have a large subjective element, and I don't deny that there are plenty of people who love WP7. But I can't help but feel that, in classic Microsoft fashion, WP7 started out being driven by several compelling concepts, but that the elegance and effectiveness of these concepts gradually got hacked to death by focus groups, strategy meetings, marketing's half-baked ideas, engineering objections and so on.

Basically, if you are going to go in a very different direction from the top established "incumbents" (if the sector is old enough to have incumbents), then I think you need to knock it out of the park. WP7 will have a relatively small base of users who love it to bits, but it didn't knock it out of the park, and the majority of consumers will find it different enough to be off-putting without seeing a killer differentiator to make them want it.